Think Mary Poppins having Sex in the City (The Nanny Diaries: A Novel - Emma McLaughlin, Nicola Kraus)

Member Name: kittykat18

Product:	The Nanny Diaries: A Novel - Emma McLaughlin, Nicola Kraus
Date:	30/07/02 (517 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An easy read, some amusing parts, an insight into the life of a modern nanny

Disadvantages: The X family name, pages and pages of conversation with small children

The cover of The Nanny Diaries certainly calls to mind Mary Poppins, with its silhouetted figure of a woman flying over the New York skyline. But the story inside is strictly set in the twenty-first century, with its depictions of life at a frantic pace, ladies who lunch, Gucci knickers and sex. Imagine a grown up version of the Babysitters Club, and you've got the Nanny Diaries.

The two authors of the book have both worked as nannies for over thirty families, so they know what they are on about. In a Note to Readers, we are told that "this is a work of fiction and none of those families is portrayed in this book". Even so, you can't help feeling that one of them must have worked for a family similar to the awful one in the book. What a way to get revenge on a terrible employer...clever girls.

Nan is a young student in New York, who takes up yet another childcare job to pay her rent. She grows to loves Grayer, the four year old boy who is her charge, but is not so keen on his pushy, demanding mother and the never to be seen father.

The first thing that irritated me about this book was the fact that the main character is called Nan (how many girls do you know called Nan?) and is a Nanny. The family name is "X", for what reason I can only imagine is the suggestion that the family could be any of thousands the same in New York. It got on my nerves though and I found it pretentious.

The book takes us through the time Nan works for the X family, which is approximately a year, and co-incides with her final year at university. What starts off as a part time job ends up being a huge commitment to Nan, as Mrs. X demands more and more from her. Mrs.X is glamorous, bossy and a terrible mother. Mr. X is having an affair with a colleague, which Nan discovers in an embarrassing incident, and feels very uncomfortable about knowing. The pressure builds and builds until Nan is invited to go away with the family for a
holiday, caring for Grayer. The book ends with a satisfying flourish, tying up most of the loose ends but leaving me a little bit disappointed.

It took me a few weeks to read this book, which is not good as if I love a book I will read it in two days or less. I found it a bit of a chore to read, especially the pages about yet another childrens party. The dialogue between several four year olds and a young nanny does not exactly make for scintillating reading. The book concentrates on Nan's life when it involves her job, only briefly introducing her father and potential love interest. I would have liked to read more about her life as a whole as I did not feel as though I knew her very well. She lets Mrs. X walk all over her and I didn't really understand why (apart from the good money she gets paid).

I would not really recommend this book. For sunbathing reading I would rather have more sex and giggles, and for serious reading something more substantial. I would not have missed anything if I never read this, but that?s not to say it?s terrible, just not especially good.

It costs £6.99 in paperback from Penguin-that's if you still want to get it after reading this.

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